Hi,

I am considering diving into D and would like to start with a book.

I found the following two (if you have any other recommendation, please do recommend)

  http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-Andrei-Alexandrescu/dp/0321635361/
  http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Tango-D-Kris-Bell/dp/1590599608/

but am unsure which one would be the "better" choice.

Any advice?

On Mon, 14 Oct 2013 14:01:13 -0700, alex <alessino@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am considering diving into D and would like to start with a book.
>
> I found the following two (if you have any other recommendation, please do recommend)
>
>    http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-Andrei-Alexandrescu/dp/0321635361/
>    http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Tango-D-Kris-Bell/dp/1590599608/
>
> but am unsure which one would be the "better" choice.
>
> Any advice?

Go with Andrei's book. It's more relevant to D today.

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/

On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:01:15 UTC, alex wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am considering diving into D and would like to start with a book.
>
> I found the following two (if you have any other recommendation, please do recommend)
>
>   http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-Andrei-Alexandrescu/dp/0321635361/
>   http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Tango-D-Kris-Bell/dp/1590599608/
>
> but am unsure which one would be the "better" choice.
>
> Any advice?

Andrei's is more relevant to modern D. Also, check out http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html

On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:02:29 UTC, Adam Wilson wrote:
>
> Go with Andrei's book. It's more relevant to D today.

Thanks for the prompt response Adam.

How come its more relevant? If my scarce D knowledge does not mislead me Tango is the more recent library anyhow. So I'd assume the latter should be up-to-date as well, shouldnt it?

cheers

On Mon, 14 Oct 2013 14:05:43 -0700, alex <alessino@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:02:29 UTC, Adam Wilson wrote:
>>
>> Go with Andrei's book. It's more relevant to D today.
>
> Thanks for the prompt response Adam.
>
> How come its more relevant? If my scarce D knowledge does not mislead me Tango is the more recent library anyhow. So I'd assume the latter should be up-to-date as well, shouldnt it?
>
> cheers

That is actually incorrect. Tango was a replacement for the Phobos Standard Library in D1 to expand on the thin capabilities of the library at the time. In D2 (current D implementation) Phobos is now the default standard library and includes most of the functionality of Tango. Ergo, TDPL (Andrei's Book) is the current Gold Standard D book.

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/

Thanks for the link John!


On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:09:32 UTC, Adam Wilson wrote:
>
> That is actually incorrect. Tango was a replacement for the Phobos Standard Library in D1 to expand on the thin capabilities of the library at the time. In D2 (current D implementation) Phobos is now the default standard library and includes most of the functionality of Tango. Ergo, TDPL (Andrei's Book) is the current Gold Standard D book.

So Tango replaced Phobos, just to be replaced by Phobos later?

What are/were the fundamental differences? Why two libraries? This admittedly kind of confused me :-D

> On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:09:32 UTC, Adam Wilson wrote:
>>
>> That is actually incorrect. Tango was a replacement for the Phobos Standard Library in D1 to expand on the thin capabilities of the library at the time. In D2 (current D implementation) Phobos is now the default standard library and includes most of the functionality of Tango. Ergo, TDPL (Andrei's Book) is the current Gold Standard D book.
>
> So Tango replaced Phobos, just to be replaced by Phobos later?
>
> What are/were the fundamental differences? Why two libraries? This admittedly kind of confused me :-D

Shotly: forget about Tango. It exists as an additional useful library right now for those who really need it. While your are a newbie you should not care about its existence at all. There was some bad history years ago but right now Phobos is standard library both de-facto and de-jure.

Unfortunately, the Internet is still full of outdated crap from D1 times.

On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:12:57 UTC, alex wrote:
> Thanks for the link John!
>
>
> On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:09:32 UTC, Adam Wilson wrote:
>>
>> That is actually incorrect. Tango was a replacement for the Phobos Standard Library in D1 to expand on the thin capabilities of the library at the time. In D2 (current D implementation) Phobos is now the default standard library and includes most of the functionality of Tango. Ergo, TDPL (Andrei's Book) is the current Gold Standard D book.
>
> So Tango replaced Phobos, just to be replaced by Phobos later?
>
> What are/were the fundamental differences? Why two libraries? This admittedly kind of confused me :-D

It's a thing of the past. Phobos sucked so Tango was created. It was incompatible, leading to stdlib wars. Then D2 came, with a runtime that would allow both to work. Phobos improved, Tango slid to irrelevancy. A D2 port of Tango exists, but it's used only by a few diehards. Phobos surpasses it in most areas. If you need one of the few things Tango is better at, you can use it together with Phobos, like e.g. Boost with C++.

Learning to program in D _based_ on Tango is a bad idea; it's a third-party library with not a whole lot of community around it (not to mention that book is very obsolete by now). Also, TDPL is an awesome book. And the Ali Cehreli's book (http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html) is awesome too, and probably even more relevant right now as it's very recent.

P.S. I'd recommend to start with free Ali's book :http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html and then go for Andrei's "The D Programming Language". It is probably best short combat course one can get.

On Monday, 14 October 2013 at 21:12:57 UTC, alex wrote:
> So Tango replaced Phobos, just to be replaced by Phobos later?

Tango was an "unofficial" replacement :)

> What are/were the fundamental differences? Why two libraries? This admittedly kind of confused me :-D

Phobos sucked, so people made Tango. Now Phobos is not as bad anymore.